In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Contents Preface ix Introduction: Popular Culture and Spontaneous Order, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tube 1 Part One Freedom and Order in the Western Introduction to Part One 25 1. The Western and Western Drama: John Ford’s The Searchers and the Oresteia 31 2. The Original Frontier: Gene Roddenberry’s Apprenticeship for Star Trek in Have Gun–Will Travel 59 3. Order Out of the Mud: Deadwood and the State of Nature 97 Part Two Maverick Creators and Maverick Heroes Introduction to Part Two 131 4. Mars Attacks!: Tim Burton and the Ideology of the Flying Saucer Movie 137 5. Flying Solo: The Aviator and Entrepreneurial Vision 167 6. Cartman Shrugged: The Invisible Gnomes and the Invisible Hand in South Park 189 Part Three Edgar G. Ulmer: The Aesthete from the Alps Meets the King of the B’s Introduction to Part Three 215 7. The Fall of the House of Ulmer: Europe versus America in the Gothic Vision of The Black Cat 223 8. America as Wasteland in Detour: Film Noir and the Frankfurt School 243 Part Four 9/11, Globalization, and New Challenges to Freedom Introduction to Part Four 271 9. The Truth Is Still Out There: The X-Files and 9/11 277 10. Un-American Gothic: The Alien Invasion Narrative and Global Modernity 299 Acknowledgments 349 Notes 353 Index 435 ...

Share